Kristall-Palast

Kristall-Palast stands in Magdeburg as the remains of a former concert and ballroom built in the late nineteenth century. Two garden pavilions with colonnades once framed the complex. Its large hall held 2,710 people and included music stages, a kitchen extension and verandas. Social halls, a dining room and the original front house completed the venue.

The hall became a major event centre before serving as an internment camp for prisoners of war during World War Two. Repairs brought performances back after the war, including the variety programme Kristall-Palast ganz groß! in 1953. Die Kugelblitze later used the building as its permanent cabaret venue from 1978. Closure followed in 1986, and the structure has since decayed into ruins. A solidarity concert by Estonian violinist Eduard Soermus in 1923 ended with his arrest and the destruction of his violin.